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Electric to Mechanical Energy Conversion of Linear Ultra-Fast Electro-Mechanical Actuators

Based on Stroke Requirements

Article Full-text available Jul 2015

Ara Bissal · Jesper Magnusson · Göran Engdahl

The operational e ciency of ultrafast actuators used as drives in high-voltage direct-current breakers is at
best 5%. To boost their e ciency, the design of the energizing circuit is crucial. A multiphysics nite-element
method model coupled with a SPICE circuit model that is able to predict the performance of the actuator
with an accuracy of...

Cite Download full-text

Citations

... Isolation times of milliseconds are often suggested as necessary to preserve network integrity in HVDC
grids [67] and ultra-fast actuator operation is a topic of utmost research importance [37], [39], [49], [68]-
[71]. Given the stringent operational requirements in DC protection applications, magnetic repulsion based
actuation mechanisms have been the main research focus in recent publications [69]- [75] . The most
common repulsion mechanism used is based on the Thomson coil actuator (TCA) principle. ...

... The TC actuator's poor e ciency is due to the increasing separation between components as the
armature moves away from the coil. This separation weakens the magnetic link, thereby diminishing the
repulsive force [75] . In order to increase the e ciency alternative, magnetic repulsion drives have been
suggested. ...

... In order to increase the e ciency alternative, magnetic repulsion drives have been suggested. A
magnetic repulsion actuator using a double sided coil arrangement, which does not rely on eddy currents
for operation, was proposed in [71], [75] . In this arrangement two series connected at coils are wound in
opposing directions and placed in close proximity. ...

HVDC Circuit Breakers–A Review

Article Full-text available Dec 2020

Damian Sergio Vilchis-Rodriguez · Mike Barnes · Xiaoze Pei · Oliver Cwikowski · Roger
Shuttleworth
HVDC circuit breakers are of increasing importance, as multi-terminal high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission
becomes a commercial reality. Multiple HVDC breaker technologies have been developed, and are starting to
appear as proof-of-concept installations on real networks. Information about them is however distributed widel…

View

... Its robustness and high speed capabilities make the TC actuator highly suitable for applications where
low maintenance and high performance are demanded, such as in DC breakers, current limiters and load
commutation switches [9][10][11][12][14][15][16][17][18]. However, in spite of its many operational
advantages, the TC actuator exhibits an important drawback: poor electrical to mechanical energy
conversion e ciency, typically about 5% [19, 20]. Thus TCs tend to use comparatively more energy than
competing schemes for similar displacements and operating times [20]. ...

... Consequently, a relatively large amount of energy must be used to achieve the required operating time,
impacting negatively on size and rating of the actuator ancillary devices. One recommended approach to
improve actuator e ciency, and therefore reduce energy consumption and operation time, is actuator
moving mass minimization [19, 20]. Thus a low mass switching device must be ideally paired to a
similarly light TC design to improve breaker performance. ...

... Armature mass must not be assumed as "dead weight", armature volume and geometry play active
roles in the actuator performance. Coil-armature magnetic eld interaction has a bearing on system
performance [19, 21]. For instance, if the armature is too thick, there will be armature material which has
zero current density due to the skin effect, which pushes the induced disc current towards the outer
surface. ...

Design, Construction, and Test of a Lightweight Thomson Coil Actuator for Medium-Voltage
Vacuum Switch Operation

Article Full-text available Mar 2019 · IEEE T ENERGY CONVER

Damian Sergio Vilchis-Rodriguez · Roger Shuttleworth · Mike Barnes · Alexander Charles Smith

This paper details the design, construction and test of a lightweight, low energy usage Thomson Coil actuator for
the operation of a commercial medium voltage vacuum switch. A novel latching design, directly linked to the
actuator armature, helps to keep the actuator mass at minimum. Experimental results show that 125J of electri…
View

... There are mainly two methods, nite element method (FEM) and equivalent circuit method (ECM), to
analyse and simulate the operating process of TCA. D.S. Vilchis-Rodriguez, Ara Bissal, and others have
already done some very detailed work on the operational e ciency of the TCA and the practical accuracy
considerations by using FEM [3, 4, 5]. However, FEM is quite time-consuming, which has been proven
precise to solve the simulation of a 2D nite element (FE) transient axis-symmetric model of a TCA [6,7]. ...

Research on a novel drive unit of fast mechanical switch with modular double capacitors

Article Full-text available Jan 2019 · JOE

Yannan Zhou · Yulong Huang · Weijie Wen · Jingwei Lu · Shutong Gao

The fast mechanical switch is one of the key devices for high-voltage direct-current circuit breakers (DCCB), and
the mechanical contacts separation time determines the operating time of hybrid mechanical circuit breakers.
With the increasing of the voltage and power levels of DC system, numerous technical challenges begin to…

View

... For ultra-fast switch operation, Thomson coil (TC)-based actuators are mostly employed [12][13][14]
[15] . However, recent research has shown that the moving coil (MC) actuator is also suitable for ultra-fast
operation when a long stroke is required [16,17]. ...

Comparison of damping techniques for the soft-stop of ultra-fast linear actuators for HVDC
breaker applications

Article Full-text available Jan 2019 · JOE

Damian S. Vilchis-Rodriguez · Roger Shuttleworth · Alexander C. Smith · Mike Barnes

This paper assesses the advantages, drawbacks, and overall suitability of different soft-stop techniques to
provide smooth deceleration of ultra-fast linear actuators used in hybrid HVDC breaker designs, with the help of
FEA simulations. The paper compares active and passive damping techniques in terms of e cacy, energy…

View

... Thomson Coil (TC)-based actuators are commonly used in applications such as arc eliminators [1],
high-speed mechanical switches [2], and hybrid DC breakers [3], where very fast operation times are
required. The TC, Fig. 1, relies on magnetic repulsion to achieve fast reaction time and high-speed
operation, while typically exhibiting low electrical to mechanical energy conversion e ciency (around 5%)
[4] . For TC operation, the actuator spiral coil is excited by a time varying current, hence producing a time
varying magnetic eld. ...

... In [4] , it was shown that the e ciency of a TC depends on the capacitor size and charging voltage and
that there is an optimal capacitor-voltage combination for a given TC design. To investigate the
convenience of the two pulse approach over the conventional single discharge operation rst, the most
convenient capacitor size and voltage combination is obtained for the TC design considered here. ...

Performance of high-power thomson coil actuator excited by a current pulse train

Article Full-text available Jan 2019 · JOE

Damian S. Vilchis-Rodriguez · Roger Shuttleworth · Alexander C. Smith · Mike Barnes

This paper uses FEA simulations to investigate the behaviour of a high-speed, high-power Thomson coil (TC)
actuator suitable for HVDC protection applications, when excited by a double discharge. The in uence of the
resulting pulse train on the amplitude of observed armature vibration is investigated. The signi cance of the…

View

... The recent researches mainly focus on the opening drive and damping methods, and there is little
research on the closing operation. To analyse and simulate the operating process of TCA, there are mainly
two methods: nite element method (FEM) [4] [5] [6][7][8] and equivalent circuit method (ECM) [9][10][11].
Since FEM is quite timeconsuming and is not suitable for parameter optimisation, in this paper, research
and work about the in uence of parameters on the closing operation have been done by using ECM. ...

Closing performance of the Thomson-coil actuator for a 110 kV FMS

Article Full-text available Oct 2018 · JOE

Yannan Zhou · Yulong Huang · Weijie Wen · Keke Sun · Jibin Zhu

In the 500 kV hybrid high-voltage direct current (HVDC) circuit breaker, there are ve 110 kV fast mechanical
switches (FMSs) in the nominal current path. When the detection system detects the failure of the hybrid circuit
breaker, in order to protect the disconnectors or semiconductors, the FMSs are required to close quickly. The…

View

... Thomson Coil (TC) based actuators are commonly used in applications such as arc eliminators [1], high
speed mechanical switches [2] and hybrid DC breakers [3], where very fast operation times are required.
The TC, Fig. 1, relies on magnetic repulsion to achieve fast reaction time and high speed operation, while
typically exhibiting low electrical to mechanical energy conversion e ciency (around 5%) [4] . For TC
operation, the actuator spiral coil is excited by a time varying current, hence producing a time varying
magnetic eld. ...

... In [4] it was shown that the e ciency of a TC depends on the capacitor size and charging voltage and
that there is an optimal capacitor-voltage combination for a given TC design. ...

Performance of a high power Thomson Coil actuator excited by a current pulse train

Conference Paper Full-text available Apr 2018

D S Vilchis-Rodriguez · R Shuttleworth · A C Smith · M Barnes

This paper uses FEA simulations to investigate the behaviour of a high speed, high power Thomson coil actuator
suitable for HVDC protection applications, when excited by a double discharge. The in uence of the resulting
pulse train on the amplitude of observed armature vibration is investigated. The signi cance of the pulse train o…

View

... The moving coil actuator takes 2.5 ms to open the vacuum interrupter, which is much faster than a
permanent magnet actuator due to the light moving mass [13,14]. The Thomson coil actuator is able to
open the vacuum interrupter within 1 ms but the operating e ciency is low [13, 15] . The moving coil
actuator was designed and used here as a compromise between the operating speed and e ciency. ...

Design and Experimental Tests of a Superconducting Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker

Article Full-text available Jan 2018 · IEEE T APPL SUPERCON

Xiaoze Pei · Oliver Cwikowski · Alexander C. Smith · Mike Barnes

Direct current (DC) circuit breakers are a key enabling technol-ogy for fault management in multi-terminal high
voltage direct current (HVDC) systems. DC fault isolation is challenging due to the high rate of rise of the fault
current and the lack of natural current zero-crossings found in AC systems. In this paper we present a novel…

View

... Available mechanical breakers have opening and closing times of between 30 and 40 ms. Electro-
magnetic actuators are able to operate within 20 ms, but only Thomson drives utilising coils with high-
repulsion currents achieve opening times of less than several milliseconds [8] . Unless the rate of rise of
the DC short-circuit current is reduced by the use of larger inductors, the reaction time of the DC circuit
breaker needs to be below 5 ms. ...

DC vacuum circuit breaker

Article Oct 2017

Lars Liljestrand · Magnus Backman · Lars Jonsson · Marco Riva · Edgar Dullni

View

... The operating speed however is limited by the heavy armature and induced eddy currents. Alternatively,
the Thomson coil actuator using an electromagnetic repulsion mechanism also has been investigated
over the past decade [15][16][17] [18] [19]. The operating velocity of the Thomson coil actuator can be as
high as 8 m/s but the energy conversion e ciency is limited in the 5-14% range [17]. ...

Fast Operating Moving Coil Actuator for a Vacuum Interrupter

Article Full-text available Apr 2017 · IEEE T ENERGY CONVER

Xiaoze Pei · Alexander C. Smith · Roger Shuttleworth · Damian Sergio Vilchis-Rodriguez · Mike
Barnes

Vacuum circuit breakers are the dominant technology in medium voltage distribution networks since they are
environmentally friendly and maintenance free. It is a challenge to design an actuator for a vacuum circuit
breaker, which achieves a high operating speed whilst maintaining high e ciency. A fast operating moving coil…

View

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